Wrestlers Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia resume work in Railways

Evicted from their Jantar Mantar protest site on May 28, top wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat have resumed work in the Railways. Records from the Northern Railways headquarters show Rio Olympics bronze medallist Malik joined her Baroda House office here on May 31, a day after the high drama in Haridwar where the trio stopped short of immersing their international medals in the Ganga after a late intervention by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Naresh Tikait.

In a letter dated May 31, Malik approved the conduct of Railways inter-divisional championships in cricket (men), badminton (men), weightlifting, basketball (men), volleyball (men), kabaddi (men), wrestling, boxing (men), athletics (men), and hockey (men). HT has a copy of the letter sent to the divisional sports officers, the Divisional Railway Manager’s office and all five divisions of Northern Railways — Ambala, Delhi, Firozpur, Lucknow and Moradabad.

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Malik signed the letter in her capacity as Officer on Special Duty (OSD). While calls and messages to Malik went unanswered, an official in the know of things confirmed the development.

“Yes, all three joined service a few days back. Since the khaps are now designing the future of the protest, the wrestlers have decided to return to work,” the source said.

The wrestlers were on leave during their 36-day sit-in. “Initially, we had taken leave for 7-10 days. We keep extending our leave. So far, there is no pressure from our employers. We are free to do what we want during our leave, and protesting is our democratic right,” Punia said last month.

However, things changed on May 27, a day before the wrestlers' planned march to the new Parliament building to join a Mahila Mahapanchayat. Railways, it is learnt, sent a show-cause notice to them. “The wrestlers were really disturbed that day. They were anyway under a lot of pressure ahead of the scheduled Mahila Mahapanchayat, and the letter from Railways set them back,” a protestor close to the wrestlers revealed.

Following the unprecedented turn of events on May 28 when Vinesh, Malik and Sangeeta Phogat were forcibly removed from Jantar Mantar by Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force personnel, the wrestlers announced they would immerse their international medals in the Ganga in Haridwar.

That was followed by a khap Mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar on Thursday where it was decided that the khaps and farm leaders will send a delegation of 5-7 members to President Droupadi Murmu and apprise her of the wrestlers' demands. In another Mahapanchayat in Kurukshetra the next day, the khaps gave the government a June 9 deadline to drop all charges against the wrestlers and arrest former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accused of sexually harassing at least seven women wrestlers, including a minor. If the demand is not met, the khap leaders have threatened to march to Jantar Mantar with the wrestlers.

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